ML* 



vMik . 






^M- 









?tmgffE^2 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Shelf..-. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 









-^m 







JAN 3 ^- 7 



WHAT SHALL WE DO 



WITH THE 



Sunday- School 



— AS AN 



INSTITUTION 



George Lansing Taylor, D.D. 

* 3 




NEW YOKE: 

WILBUR B. KETCHaM, 

71 Bible House. 




■£%, 



g 



COPYRIGHT BY 

WILBUR B KETCHAM, 

.886. 



XOTE. 



This booklet was prepared and deliv- 
ered as an essay before the New York 
Methodist Episcopal " Preachers' Meet- 
ing," a body of about two hundred minis- 
ters, mostly pastors. It has also been 
called for as an address before certain 
Sunday-School conventions. The dis- 
cussions it has called forth have been en- 
couraging, and votes have been passed re- 
questing its publication, with a view to 
further discussion of the important subject 
which it barely enters upon. In the hope 
that, if hammered enough, it may prove a 
serviceable wedge to the further opening 
up of a matter, of vital importance to the 
churches, it is respectfully offered for the 
friendly consideration of fellow-pastors 
and Christian laborers. 

The Author. 



WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH THE 

SUNDAY-SCHOOL AS AN 

INSTITUTION? 



SYNOPSIS. 



I. Comprehend its Importance, 
(i.) Quantitative and (2.) Qualitative- 

II. Is the Sunday School Meeting 
the Demand of the Times? 

Answer, No. in Five Points. 

III. Explanation of the Compara- 
tive Failure, 

In Three Points. 

IV. Consequences of the Present 
Mal-adjustments, 

In Six Points. 

V. The Re-adjustments Needed, 

In Six Points. 

VI. The Benefits to be Anticipated 
from these Re-adjustments, 

In Three Points. 



WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH THE 

SUNDAY SCHOOL, AS AN 

INSTITUTION? 



The asking of such a question implies a 
conviction in the mind of the writer that 
there is need that something should be 
done for, or with, the Sunday-School. 
In this conviction he believes that he stands 
not alone, but that this thought is in the 
minds of many of the wisest and truest 
friends of progress, in all branches of the 
Church. Yet this conviction is not due 
to a low estimate of the value of the Sun- 
day-School as it now exists, but to a very 
high appreciation of what it has done in 
the past and is now doing, and a sincere 
desire that it may yet be and do all that 
it ought to be and do, as, in the writer's 
opinion, is not now the case. Hence 
arises the inquiry: What shall we do 
with the Sunday-School as an Institution ? 



8 IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 

In attempting to answer this question we 
submit the following points. 

I. We Must Understand the 
Importance of the Sunday-School, 
or Rather of What the Sunday- 
School Ought to be, in the Present 
and Future System of Church Work. 
And under this head we remark 
I. The True Position for the Modern 
Sunday -School Cannot be Determined Mere- 
ly in the Light of its Past History. The 
present mal-adjustments of the Sunday- 
School to the wants of the Church are 
explained in the light of its origin outside 
of the Church, as a lay missionary move- 
ment ; but to comprehend the demands of 
the present and the future the sooner 
we utterly forget that origin, except as a 
model of zeal, the better. Except in the 
case of "ragged schools," or a few of the 
irregular " city mission" schools, the situa- 
tion of the modern Sunday-School is 
wholly different from that of the past. 
The average modern Sunday-School is 
wholly another thing from the original 



STATISTICS. 9 

and demands a wholly different place in 
the scheme of Church work. 

On the score of numerical magnitude 
alone the quantitative importance of this 
demand is imperative. The " Year-Book" 
of the Sunday-School Union of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, for 1886, gives a 
grand total of 1,818,032 scholars, with 
246,054 officers and teachers, or a total of 
2,064,086, in the Sunday-School host of 
our own form of Methodism, alone. But 
according to the " Methodist Year-Book" 
for 1886 the membership of the seven lead- 
ing Protestant Church forms, in the United 
States, is as follows : 

1. Total Methodists, of all branches, 3,793,724 

2. " Baptists, " " 2,552,129 

3. " Presbyterians, of all branches, 1,002,944 

4. " Lutherans, * " 800,189 

5. " Disciples of Christ, (Campbellites) of 

all branches, 563,928 

6. " Congregationalists (Orthodox) of all 

branches, 387,619 

7. " Protestant Episcopalians, of all 

branches, 313,889 

Total of the seven groups, 9,414,442 

But some of these statistics must have 



IO THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL ARMY 

been a year old when the table was com- 
piled, so the true total must be at least 
10,000,000 members, for these seven 
groups of Protestant churches. 

Now if the Methodist ratio of scholars to 
members holds good throughout this 10,- 
000,000 members, (and it should do so, for 
two fifths of them are Methodists), and if 
we take the minor Protestant bodies into 
account, we have an army of over 11,000,- 
000 Sunday-School teachers and scholars 
in the Protestant Churches of the United 
States, an army numbering nearly four 
times the population of America when In- 
dependence was declared and achieved. 

And this is only the Protestant Sunday- 
School army of the United States alone. 
How vast, then, is the Sunday-School in- 
terest of the whole world ! The " Church, 
of England Institute" reports that the Sun- 
day-School scholars of all Christendom 
number, in the aggregate, not fewer than 
16,000,000, taught by about 2,000,000 offi- 
cers and teachers, or 18,000,000 in alL 
One-fifth of the whole population of Eng- 



OF CHRISTENDOM. II 

land and Wales are in Sunday-Schools, 
there being 600,000 teachers, and 2,500,- 
000 scholars. To judge from these, and. 
our American figures, the grand total for 
all Christendom ought to equal, if not ex- 
ceed, 20,000,000. 

Another recent authority estimates that 
one-eighth of the Sunday-School popula- 
tion of the world is connected with the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in the United 
States ; and this estimate coincides, sub- 
stantially, with the previous one. How 
immense, then, is, the importance of the 
Sunday-School work of the world ; and 
how great is our responsibility as Metho- 
dists, into whose hands so great a share of 
this work has, by the blessing of God on 
our own labors, been committed. This is 
merely the numerical aspect of the ques- 
tion. But, 

2. Quality, as well as Numbers, must be 

Considered. The qualitative importance 
of the subject is even greater than the 
quantitative. This mighty host consists 
mainly of the young, children and youth* 



12 QUALITY AND ADVANTAGES. 

the educating, plastic, susceptible class, 
who are in the formative period of mind 
and character. They are mainly, also, 
from the better classes of our families, our 
self-supporting, temperate, moral families ; 
and, in a vast majority of cases, from fami- 
lies who are in the ranks of Church mem- 
bership. Moreover they are youth whose 
educational advantages, in our public 
schools, academies, and colleges, are vast- 
ly superior, on an average, to those of any 
previous generations the world ever saw, 
in this or any other land under the sun. 
They are getting a good start in life, in 
both a material and educational sense, far 
better than their parents had ; and especi- 
ally is this true of the children of foreign 
born parents, whose lot was often one of 
hopeless and illiterate serfdom, or next to 
that, in the Old World. With the popula- 
tion of America doubling oftener than 
-once in thirty years, these children now in 
our Sunday-Schools are to see 100,000,000, 
and some of them 200,000,000, population 
in America, and of that population they 



A MIGHTY DESTINY. l3 

must be the guides and leaders ! The edu- 
cated and professional men and women, 
the preachers and teachers and authors ; 
the lawyers and physicians and journal- 
ists ; the capitalists, inventors and artists ; 
the rulers and jurists and statesmen ; 
nearly all the leaders of thought and ac- 
tion of the next generation, the future 
guides and lights of the mightiest race and 
nation on the globe, are now in the Pro- 
testant Sunday-Schools of America. 

Ah, how wise, as well as witty, was Mar- 
tin Luther's school-master at Eisenach, 
the old scholar and poet John Trebonius, 
Who, when questioned why he always took 
off his cap and made a bow to his pupils, 
on entering his school-room, replied ; " I 
make my bow to the great men of the 
next generation, who now sit in these 
boys' jackets on my benches." Just so it 
is the " great men of the next generation" 
who are now receiving, or failing to receive, 
the most momentous part of their educa- 
tion, the religious part, in our Sunday- 
School. The vastness of the destinies for 



14 THE DEMAND. 

all the world hanging on the proper religi- 
ous training of American Youth, is what 
only the spirit of prophecy can compre- 
hend. This is the problem opening be- 
fore us when we approach a broad and 
grasping considerations of the "Sunday- 
School question." And now we are pre- 
pared to inquire. 

ii. Is the Sunday-School, as it 
Now Exists Among Us, Meeting Such 
a Demand as We Have Considered 
for the Religious Education of 
American Protestant Youth. 

Mind that we are not talking about the 
demand of Robert Raikes' time among the 
half-barbarous neglected masses of Eng- 
land, or about similar work in our city 
slums of to-day. There is manifest and 
great improvement even in this form of 
work, and room for much more improve- 
ment. But that is not the great Sunday- 
School work of our day and place in the 
world. That work now lies among our 
own youth, in our settled church life, all 
over the land, in all denominations. Are 



THE FAILURE. I 5 

we getting what our youth need, what the 
church needs, what the world needs, out 
of the Sunday-School as it now exists, and 
in view of the interests at stake ? To this 
question we can see only one intelligent 
and candid answer possible, and that is 
No! Vastly not! Immensely not! We 
have had a glorious and blessed result, 
past and present, a result to shout over, 
and one that has been well shouted over ; 
but we have never had, and never can have, 
the results needed, for these times, from 
the Sunday-School as hitherto constituted. 
But the first step toward a better future is 
always to get a clear comprehension of 
the lackings and short-comings of the pres- 
sent. To these, therefore, let us first turn 
our attention. Among the more manifest 
points of weakness in the Sunday-School 
system, as it now exists, we may note the 
following : — 

1. The Slender Qualifications of Too 
Many Superintendents and Teachers. As 
a matter of necessity but very few Super- 
intendents or Teachers are persons who 



l6 UNTRAINED 

have had any special education in the line 
of Biblical or Religious Knowledge. This 
is not their fault, but it is because these 
things are not matters that commonly 
enter into the systematic education of the 
laity. But more than this, many of both 
Superintendents and Teachers are persons 
whose ordinary English education in com- 
mon school branches is far from satisfac- 
tory. It is to be gladly admitted that 
some comparatively uneducated, Super- 
intendents and Teachers have, by native 
good sense, and piety, and perhaps tal- 
ents, been very useful, more so, some- 
times, than some others of better educa- 
tion, but less of the other qualifications of 
nature and grace. But such shining ex- 
ceptions prove nothing against the im- 
portance of a better educated staff of 
workers than the present system is, as a 
rule, able to command. But more than 
this, a great number of teachers are, and 
in the present system must be, persons of 
very immature character, and whose con- 
ception , of their work, and of its require- 



LABORERS. \J 

mcnts and duties, is very far below what 
it should be. Indeed, it cannot be de- 
nied that many frivolous persons are now 
acting as Sunday-School Teachers, some 
of them for lack of better material — or the 
apparent lack of it, — some at their own 
anxious desire, for the sake of the to them 
not inconsiderable social or business ad- 
vantages of the position. And it will not 
be denied that, even among those fairly 
qualified in other respects, there is often 
a manifest lack of consecration to the high 
and holy responsibilities of the work. 
Thus much for the present about the 
qualifications of many of those who are 
engaged in the work. Although many of 
the best minds and most zealous hearts 
in the churches are engaged in our Sun- 
day-Schools, yet we think the truth of 
our point will be admitted as to a large 
number. 

2. A Second Point of Weakness in our 
Present system is the Fact of the Loss of 
many of our Older Youth from the Sunday- 
School. These are many of them from 



18 UNSUITABLE METHODS. 

our own christian homes, and sometimes 
the fault is no doubt in defective home 
training. But the chief fault is in the fail- 
ure of the Sunday-School to meet the 
mental and moral wants of those spoken 
of, many of whom, in our better modern 
common school education, or higher edu- 
cation, are better educated, in some res- 
pects, than those who teach them. Those 
who thus, in their teens, go out of Sunday- 
School, are generally unconverted, and, 
alas ! too often remain so, when better 
Sunday-Schools might have retained and 
saved them. But this loss of scholars 
from our schools points to another defect, 
namely : 

3. Bad Methods of Obtaining Scholars. 
There are too many children in all our 
schools who are there from false motives. 
They have been induced to attend by 
presents or rewards given for attendance, 
either to themselves, or to some other 
scholar for bringing them in. In some 
subtle or open way they have been hired 
to attend. And when they have got the 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL VERSUS CHURCH. 19 

rewards of attendance in one place, then 
they are off for " fresh fields and pastures 
new" in some other school. They be- 
come the class known to many city 
schools as " rounders," who go to Sunday- 
School distinctively for the " loaves nd 
fishes," often attending two, sometimes 
more, schools, if the hours permit, and 
getting very little instruction from any. 
This class of "dead beats" and "tramps" 
are the legitimate creation of bad meth- 
ods of getting scholars. Who would think 
of filling churches in that way, or of 
getting people converted by such methods. 
When scholars are brought by legitimate 
motives, they are more likely to stay and 
become useful members. 

4. But The Growing Separation of 
Feeling Between the Sunday- Schools and 
the Churches, is a more notable and mo- 
mentous matter than any of the preceding 
points. This separation of feeling shows 
itself in two ways. 

a. Non-attendance at Church Service is 
its most common manifestation. This 



20 CHURCH, THEN SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 

takes place even among those who have 
not forsaken Sunday-School, both youth 
and adults, pupils and teachers. This is 
partly due to the seductive but dangerous 
mistake of calling the Sunday-School M The 
Children s Church!' The abyss of con- 
trast between Sunday-School and church 
is lost sight of. For my part, much as I es- 
teem the Sunday-School, and earnestly as 
I have labored for it, I would prefer that 
my children should never see a Sunday- 
School, rather than that they should lose 
the training in reverence, in worship, in de- 
votion, and the superior instruction of ser- 
mons, which belong to church worship. 
When children of non-church-going parents 
are gathered into Sunday-School we recog- 
nize a great and good work done, and bet- 
ter still if, through Sunday-School, they are 
brought to attend church. But when the 
youth and children of our own families 
are kept away from church, necessarily or 
not, on account of Sunday-School, then 
very grave questions arise. No experi- 
enced pastor can avoid the feeling that in 



ALIENATION FROM CHURCH. 21 

thousands of cases, especially in villages 
and cities, the Sunday-School is an actual 
obstacle in the way of church attendance 
by children, and by many adults. And so 
we have the surprising phenomenon of 
seeing the Sunday-School, which was 
brought into being to bring children to 
church, now actually keeping away from 
church in many cases more children than 
it brings to church, and thus far defeat- 
ing the end of its own existence.! In 
many churches there w r ould be more peo- 
ple, parents and children, in attendance 
upon the public services of the church 
without the Sunday-School than there are 
with it. Especially is this true where the 
Sunday-School is held at a separate hour 
from church service. Such an hour were 
undoubtedly best for the Sunday-School, if 
the Sunday-School were an independent 
institution, existing for its own sake. But 
when we see thousands of children out 
then, who attend no regular church ser- 
vice ; and also many youth, and not a few 
adults, who, in consequence of the Sunday- 



22 TOO MANY " SOCIETIES. 

School, attend only one church service, we 
are led to great anxiety as to the benefits 
of such an arrangement. But, 

b. A Still Mere Serious Element of 
Separation of Feeling arises from the Sep- 
arate, or quasi-separate. Organisation of 
the Sunday-School Societies, Boards, or 
Managers from the General Governing 
Bodies of the Churches. This fact has be- 
come the occasion of dissensions in many 
churches, and not a few churches, in vari- 
ous denominations, have been split asun- 
der by it. And even where peace has 
never been disturbed there is always a 
weak point, and the possibility of trouble 
along this line. In view, therefore, of the 
slender qualifications of too many Super- 
intendents and Teachers, of the loss of so 
many of our older youth from the Schools, 
and of the growing separation of feeling, 
shown both in falling off in Church attend- 
ance by scholars and teachers, and in 
friction of organization, we believe the 
Sunday-School Institution, as it now exists 
among us, is not adequately meeting, and 



NOT ATTACKING SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. 23 

in its present form can not meet, the de- 
mand of our times in the Religious instruc- 
tion of our youth. Nay more, we believe 
the Sunday-School, as it commonly exists, 
is in many cases an obstacle in the way 
of what would better supply the dem: 
of the times, could we get at the thing 
wanted, and make it available. There is 
great pith in the old German proverb ; 
44 The good is a great foe to the better^ 
By this time some good people will begin 
to wonder whether I am not really an 
enemy to the Sunday-School, and making 
an attack on it ; but if they follow me to 
the end they will revise that suspicion. 

And now we are ready to ask, 

III. What is the Explanation of 
this Failure of the Modern Sunday- 
School to Meet the Wants of the 
Church and the Times. 

To this inquiry we answer : 

1. This Failure is not the Fault of the 
Officers and Teachers of the Sunday-Schools > 
at least not primarily so. Please let our 
Sunday-School friends bear in mind that 



24 WHERE IS THE FAULT ? 

we say that, and mean it. Our Sunday- 
School people have their short-comings, 
like other mortals, and, like other mortals, 
in many cases more than they need to 
have. Their lack of qualification might 
be made up, in part, at least, by more 
study, and wiser and more earnest study, 
and more prayer. But, taken as a w r hole, 
they are probably the most zealous class 
of workers in our churches ; though there 
are always several, in every school, who 
for every reason, might better be scholars 
than teachers. 

2. This Failure is not, Primarily, the 
Fault of the Pastors. The pastors have a 
great many faults and short-comings — as 
what layman don't know ! — But most of 
the pastors do all, that, under the present 
system, they can, for the Sunday-Schools ; 
and those who do most there generally do 
it at the expense of their higher work in 
the pulpit. In most cases, under the pres- 
ent plan, the church loses, rather than 
gains, by the pastor's being in regular ser- 
vice as teacher in the Sunday-School. All 



A WRONG SYSTEM. 25 

honor to the pastors who try, and to the 
few who succeed, in this work. Honor, 
too, to the pastors who know better than 
to try, and who refuse to sacrifice the great- 
er work for the sake of the lesser, however 
popular the sacrifice may be. Having 
considered where the fault of the failure is 
not, let us now consider where it is. And 
to this point we answer, 

3. The Root of the Failure of the Mod- 
ern Sunday-School to Meet the zvant of our 
Times Lies in a Wrong Plan of the Sunday 
Church Work, and in a Wrong Organiza* 
tion of Working Forces, Growing out of 
that Wrong Plan. There is a trial-adjust- 
ment of working forces, growing out of the 
great evolution of the Sunday-School, and 
the total change of relations that has tak-^ 
en place. If we deal with the question 
merely in the light of the qualifications of 
Teachers and Superintendents, and of pub- 
lished Lesson Papers, etc., — of which this 
age has the best ever made — we shall make 
a great mistake. We shall be only 
tithing * 'the mint, anise, and cummin." We 



26 A u TEACHING SERVICE" WANTED. 

shall be merely surface-scratching where 
subsoiling is needed. We need to deal 
with the organic place and relation of the 
whole institution to the church. What 
we need is not patching but revolution. 
The truth to be seen and comprehended is 
that, in the development of the Sunday- 
School, we have brought about a new form 
of church work and worship, viz: the Teach- 
ing Service ; and we need to do this work, 
as we do the Preaching Service, with the 
presence, labors, sanction, and govern- 
ment, of the Pastor, the whole congrega- 
tion, and the common governing body of 
the church, Quarterly Conference, Official 
Board, Session, Consistory, or what not. 
All idea of any separation of work or ad- 
ministration between the old people and 
the young, in work or worship, should be 
forgotten, at least so far as relates to this 
service. The very name and idea of " Sun- 
day-School," except in the sense of mis- 
sion scoools, should be abolished. We 
are not teaching our children to read, but 
training them in christian knowledge, piety, 



HISTORY NOT A SURE GUIDE. 2/ 

and character. We have patched an old 
and venerable garment with one new piece 
after another, when the thing to be done 
was to make a new garment, and after a 
new pattern. The origin o{ this maladjust- 
ment is historical. It is involved in the 
origin of the very institution of Sunday- 
Schools. That was a missionary origin, 
outside of regular church action, and for 
the lack of it. It was a blessed work, one 
of the best movements in Christian History, 
but had it originated inside of church lines 
its organization would have been entirely 
different. It would never have been the- 
imperium in imperio that, in practice at 
least, it comes too near to being now. 
All its machinery of societies, boards offi- 
cers, etc., or nearly all, would have been 
unnecessary and unknown. The common 
organization of the church, somewhat modi- 
fied and extended, with the Pastor at its 
head, would have been all-sufficient, and 
better than any more complicated ma- 
chinery. The historical absurdity has 
been committed of taking a form of or- 



28 OVERLOADED SABBATHS. 

ganization made necessary for lack of 
church work and church material, and im- 
J>orting it bodily into the church. The 
work greatly needed doing, but the mis- 
take was, and still is, in not doing it like 
any other church work, through the regu- 
lar authorities and methods of the church, 
modified to suit the case, but not pushed 
aside by a new organization. If the 
churches were not doing the work now, 
then welcome to any machinery that 
would do it. But the churches are doing 
it, and could do it better with the old ma- 
chine out of the way. And now let us 
consider 

IV. Some of the Consequences 
Flowing from the Mal-adjustments 
Mentioned. Among these may be men- 
tioned : 

i. An Overloaded Sabbath. The pres- 
ent common scheme involves, generally, 
three public services on Sunday \ for the 
-same set of people, viz: two preaching ser- 
vices and the Sunday-School. Now the 
-Christian Church has always held, with her 



OVERWORKED LABORERS. 29 

Divine Founder, that M The Sabbath was 
made for man, and not man for the Sab- 
bath;" and that physical and mental rest, 
as well as spiritual exercise, was a part of 
the divine purpose in ordaining the Sabbath 
at Creation. But is not this idea of rest 
violated by holding three Sabbath Services 
for the ordinary Sabbath work of the same 
set of people all the year around ? Of course 
we do not refer to seasons of revival, or to 
occasional special services, but for the 
ordinary and habitual Sunday work. It 
seems to us so, and that no habitual vio- 
lation of any divine command, even 
through pious zeal, can be anything but 
wrong, and hence disastrous in the end. 
2. An Overworked Church, ministry 
and laity, both young and old, is the next 
consequence. Some people may be in- 
clined to laugh at the idea of an "over- 
worked church," and as to the case of too 
many members the laugh were just. But it 
is to be borne in mind that it is those who 
are already doing the work who must do 
more work, if more work is to be done. 



30 UNDEVELOPED RESOURCES. 

It is the "free" horses who are over-driven, 
not the lazy ones. And when the ministry 
;and laity are overworked, then comes 
diminished preparation for the work, dimin- 
ished reserve force and zest in it, diminished 
benefit, and to diminished numbers ; and 
-this must either be true of all the Church 
services, or else some services must be 
neglected for the sake of others. But the 
preacher must preach — whether he has 
the people, or the empty benches, to 
preach to, and through it waste the preach- 
ing and kill the preacher. And then, 

3. The Best Use of Church Workers 
for the Work is Impossible Under such 
Circumstances. In the present system 
many of the best workers, by education, 
maturity, and piety, being indispensable 
at the two preaching services, cannot be 
had for Sunday-School work, and hence, 
as we have already noted, too many half- 
taught, giddy, and unsuitable persons 
must be used, greatly to the detriment of 
both the pupils and the Church. This is 
not said to find fault with the teachers as 



EXCLUSION OF PASTORS. 3 1 

a body, but with the system under which 
they work ; though sometimes the fault is 
with Superintendents who seem to prefer 
pliable teachers to competent ones. 

4. But a Still Worse Consequence is 
The Practical Exclusion of the Ministers 
from one of the most Momentous Parts of 
their Work, as Pastors and Leaders of 
their Children and Youth. In the present 
system it is almost impossible for the Pas- 
tor to bear his proper relation, and do his 
proper work, among the youth of his 
flock. Another officer, the Superintend- 
ent of the Sunday-School, becomes neces- 
sary ; and, by no fault of his own, (if he is 
at all fit for the place), but by the inevita- 
ble effect, of the system, this brother, a 
layman, comes in as a buffer between the 
real shepherd and his flock, and that, too, 
the most tender and susceptible part of 
his flock, the Lambs, which the Lord 
so emphatically commanded his apostle 
to feed. And so the Sunday-School 
Superintendent, a layman, is thrust into 
the place which no man but the an- 



32 RAMS VERSUS LAMBS. 

nointed shepherd ought ever to occupy, 
in the mind and regard of the children 
and youth. The Pastor may be the shep- 
herd of the sheep, the tough old saints 
and sinners, the rams and he-goats and 
bulls of Bashan, but not the shepherd of the 
lambs and the kids and the calves, the year- 
lings and two-year-olds, the young and 
plastic minds, the most hopeful part of his 
charge. Or, if he undertakes to do his 
work among the lambs he has to feel, and 
too often is made to feel, that he is doing 
it by the permission of another, who 
sometimes, at least, looks upon his work 
as an intrusion. The brother who ought 
to be the pastor's assistant and deputy, 
becomes, by virtue of an independent 
election, practically independent of the 
Pastor, in his control of the school ; and 
sometimes, at least, assumes to be the 
master of both the Pastor and school. 
And so the instructed and anointed guide 
sometimes finds an ignorant and ambitious 
lay official making it unpleasant for him to 
perform one of his most sacred and mo- 



CLASS LEADER A MODEL. 33 

mentous duties. And yet bear in mind 
that \vc say that this is more by the fault 
of the system than of the men who serve 
as our Sunday school Superintendents. 

5. Another Consequence of the pres- 
ent system, closely allied to the preced- 
ing, is that The Pastor is Stripped of the 
Authority, Rightly Inhering in his Office ■, 
of Guiding the Spiritual Instruction of 
Children and Youth by choosing his own 
Assistants in that Work, The relation of 
the Class Leader in the Methodist Church 
to the Pastor, as his appointee, deputy 
and assistant, is one of the highest pro- 
priety, and the best possible model for 
that of all subordinate religious Teachers, 
the Sunday-School Teacher with the rest. 
Under some additional forms, or restric- 
tions, perhaps, with the concurrence of 
the church authorities, in election, the 
Pastor should have the original nomina- 
tion, if not the actual appointment, of 
those whose work, as religious Teachers, 
he is the fittest person to supervise. 

6. The last consequence of the present 



34 SURPLUS MACHINERY. 

situation which I shall mention, and one 
of the most weighty of all, is The Intro* 
due Hon of A 7io t her Governing Body, The 
" Stmday School Board" or "Society" or 
whatever it may be called in various de- 
nominations, to Divide and Burden and 
Complicate the Administration of the 
Church. Simplicity, the absence of all 
unnecessary wheels or parts, and thus the 
saving of friction, is as sound a law in 
churches as in mechanics. And then the 
materials of which these Sunday-School 
societies or Boards are composed are 
often such as to add to the friction. Im- 
mature youth, often mere boys and girls, 
who know but little of the Discipline of 
the churches, or of Parliamentary forms, 
and have had but little experience in life 
or business, are, by the present system, 
brought into a voting, and often control- 
ling, relation to very weighty matters, 
deeply affecting the welfare of the church. 
Owing their nomination solely to the 
Superintendent, and to only a concur- 
rence, and often not even that, on the 



MISCHIEVOUS POSSIBILITIES. 35 

part of the Pastor ; and being also de- 
pendent upon the Superintendent for their 
assignments to work, they are plastic in 
the hands of the Superintendent, to whom, 
rather than to the Pastor, they have been 
accustomed to look from childhood, as 
the head and controlling power in the 
Sunday-School. Fortunately for the peace 
of the churches, the generality of our 
Superintendents have been wise and un- 
selfish men, in whose hands practice has 
been better than theory or law. But the 
system includes in its organic structure 
the possibilities of, and almost the bid 
for, such an event as that which recently 
rent and distressed one of the oldest and 
most respected churches in Brooklyn, 
where an ambitious and refractory Super- 
intendent, with a following of his own 
training for years, was able to defy thje 
pastor and consistory of the Church, and 
to split an old Sunday-Schcol asunder an4 
carry off a large portion of it to start ja 
rival Sunday-School in a hall near by, to 
the great injury of the Church to which 



36 A VICE IN THE SYSTEM. 

his allegiance was due, and which should 
have had the constitutional grip to have 
held him, or to have disciplined him at 
once. In fact frictions between Pastors 
and Church authorities, on the one hand, 
and Sunday School Societies and Super- 
intendents on the other hand, are more or 
less inevitable, as the Sunday School In- 
stitution now exists ; and the Pastor who 
has never had such collisions must either 
have been a miraculously wise man, or a 
miraculously lazy one, or he must have 
had miraculous Sunday-School Superin- 
tendents. There is an inherent vice in the 
plan, both as to instruction and govern- 
ment, which nothing short of a radical 
change of adjustments can remedy. And 
now we are ready to inquire : 

V. What Readjustments are 
Needed, to Bring this Department 
of Church Work into Harmony 
with all the Rest, and so to Reach 
the Highest Efficiency for All. 
To this inquiry we would suggest as the 
answer : 



rASTOR SHOULD BE SUPERINTENDENT 3/ 

1. Recognize the Fact that what we 
call the " Sunday- School* is in Reality a 
Public Church Service, and One of the 
most Important of the Day, and Treat it 
Accordingly. Except in special seasons 
attempt only two principal services on 
Sunday, the Preaching Service and the 
Teaching Service ; with a prayer meeting, 
or some vesper service, in the evening ; or 
some of the anniversaries, Sunday-School 
concerts, or Temperance meetings, and the 
like, of which we ought to have more, with 
more opportunity for them. 

2. Abolish the Separate Office of Sun- 
day-School Superintendent, and make every 
Pastor the Head of the Sunday -School as 
much as of the Church. And leave out of 
the Discipline that little Latin snare, " Ex- 
officio" which so many good people mis- 
understand as meaning " complimentary," 
rather than actual. The pastor will need 
assistants, and should have the right of 
appointing them, as Class Leaders with us 
are appointed, or at least of nominating, 
them, as we make Stewards. On circuits, 



^8 " FOR A FEW MINUTES." 

where the Pastor has to visit more than 
one church on Sunday, the Assistant Super- 
intendent would have to do most of the 
work ; but he should do it as the Pastors 
deputy and representative, and the Pastor, 
when present, should be in actual charge 
of the school, by office, and not by invita- 
tion. It is one of the strangest and most 
inconsistent anomalies in our church life 
that this is not so now ; and that the Pas- 
tor of the church is known to the little 
people only as a gentleman wearing a black 
coat and a white neck-tie, whom their 
Sunday-School Superintendent frequently 
■invites to talk to them u /i?r a few min- 
utes" with a significant look at the clock, 
and emphasis on the" few"\ Instead of be- 
ing in such a weakening and disorganiz- 
ing position, the Pastor should be the pre- 
siding, guiding, inspiring genius of the 
"whole school ; and the children should 
^grow up looking to him as their Leader, 
from the Infant Class onward. In this 
position all lesson reviews, catechisms, 
'short sermons to children, children's 



LOYALTY AND UNITY. 39 

prayer meetings, every part of the work, 
— much of which is now neglected, — 
would be in the Pastor's hands where 
it ought to be, and he would be in the 
position to look after it. And furthermore, 
the whole relation of the membership to 
the pastor, for all of life, would be differ- 
ent and better, were this the position of 
things. Our children would not be spoiled 
for church loyalty for life by a disloyal 
atmosphere in the Sunday-School, as is 
now too often the case. 

3. Make the Teaching Service a Thing 
for the Whole Church, and Expect the 
Whole Church and Congregation to be in 
it. Under the Leadership of the Pastor, 
and only so, can this work be accom- 
plished, and old and young make a holy 
service together in the study of the word 
of God. In this way, also, can Normal 
Classes, of which every school should have 
one, be maintained, and thus a better class 
of teachers be raised up continually. 

4. Let the Common Governing Body of 
the Churchy with perhaps a select committee 



40 ONE PURSE AND ONE RULE. 

from the wisest Sunday-School Laborers, 
Govern this Part of the Work just the 
same as all the others y subject to the Disci- 
pline of the Denomination. This would 
make an end of clashing, and elevate and 
dignify the whole. It would no longer 
leave some of the most weighty interests 
of the Church subject to the decision of 
inexperienced youth. 

5. Let the Common Revenues of the 
Church support this service. Like all 
others, and let them receive its Contribu- 
tio?is in like manner. 

This will take away the claim — in this 
case a sophistical one in its application, 
since children's money comes from parents 
— that self-government should go with self- 
support ; and thus would remove the finan- 
cial fulcrum from the lever of disturbance 
and independence. It w T ould also make 
an end of some of some objectionable 
methods of raising Sunday-School funds 
now too much in vogue. 

6. Let special Training for Sunday- 
School Work be a Part of the Theological 



BENEFITS EXPECTED. $\ 

Seminary Education of Every Preacher. 

This is done now, to a considerable 
extent, but let more of it be done, and 
done as it only can be done when the 
student looks to the management and 
training- of a Sunday-School as just as 
much a part of his future work as preach- 
ing is. No man will study for mere theo- 
retical knowledge as he will for what he 
expects to use in regular practice. And 
now, in conclusion, for a brief glance at 

VI. Some of the Benefits Like- 
ly to Flow from These Proposed 
Changes. Several of these have already 
been touched upon, but there are others 
to be mentioned. 

I. The Unification of the Church and 
Church Work. All the organization, sys- 
tem, teaching, training, work, of the 
Church would thus come under the guid- 
ance of one leading and moulding mind, 
as is not now possible ; and yet all the 
talent of the church would find scope for 
work, and probably be better worked than 
is now the case. 



42 SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION. 

2. Elevation of he Standard of In- 
struction. The man called by God and 
the Church to the work of religious 
preaching and teaching, and profession- 
ally educated with a special view to that 
work, would now be in a position to give 
the youth of the church the especial bene- 
fit of his superior advantages. Not that he 
would dispense with teachers, nor dwarf 
their work, or lower its dignity, but, on 
the contrary, improve both them and 
their work. Having his proper relation to 
them, and having this work in its proper 
place in the Sunday programme, he has the 
liesure, and the duty, to study and prepare 
for his part, the review and normal teach- 
ing, just as well as for preaching. How 
very few lay Superintendents have either 
the time for such preparation, or the educa- 
tion or libraries necessary to make the 
best use of the time, if they had it. The 
fact that we have good Lesson Helps pub- 
lished ready to hand does not put the un- 
educated man on par with the man pro- 
fessionally educated and trained. The 



NORMAL TRAINING. 43 

best chest of tools ever manufactured, no 
matter how polished and sharpened, would 
not make a carpenter out of a hod-carrier, 
nor a watch-maker out of a carpenter. 
Tools are one thing, the art quite another. 
It must be recognized that the headship 
of the modern Sunday-School is practic- 
ally a new office, and one far more closely 
allied to clerical than to lay work. 

// is of the very essence of the ministerial 
office in its nature and character, a feedings 
of Chrises sheep and lambs, a breaking of 
the bread small between the Master's 
hands and the youth and little ones of his 
flock. For its spiritual character, espe- 
cially, the Pastor should be at the head of 
this work, both in form and fact. 

But there is much else that needs the 
Pastors hand. The training classes for 
teachers need to use different studies from 
those of the school at large. They want 
Bible Knowledge systematized. . Classes 
should be formed in Bible Geography, 
Ethnology and History, with maps and 
Chronology; Bible Archaeology, with cuts 



44 PASTOR OF YOUTH. 

oi objects, manners and customs ; Bible 
Biography, Ethics, Natural History, Lit- 
erature, etc., etc., etc. In all these things 
there should be some systematic training 
connected with every large or small Sun- 
day school, and the Pastor is most com- 
monly the only man in the church well 
qualified to oversee, if not to execute, such 
work. 

3. The Last Benefit we will Mention, 
but one of Prime Importance, is that in 
this system the Pastor comes, as a neces- 
sity, to know the Youth of his charge, and 
they to know him, as is in ?io other way pos- 
sible. One of the chief causes of the loss 
of many of our youth to the church is the 
inevitable, or nearly inevitable chasm, 
which the present system creates between 
the children and youth, and the pulpit. 
But once bring the Pastor into his proper 
relation to the children and youth, let 
them know him as their guide and leader 
from youth, and let them also be under 
the best culture and talent in the church, 
such as the Pastor's leadership, and time 



A VITAL QUESTION. 45 

for the service, would bring to his aid, and 
there would be a transformation in this 
matter that would be the joy and marvel 
of the church. The whole atmosphere of 
many Sunday-Schools would be changed, 
and the "nursery of the church" would 
have a cultivating and saving influence 
over the sprouts growing in it. 

We believe this to be one of the largest 
and deepest of modern questions as to the 
internal economy of the churchy a?id one 
most deeply affecting its prosperity. Cer- 
tainly if there is any work in the whole 
round of church enterprise that demands, 
and has the right to claim, the best service 
of the Pastor, and of the ablest and best edu- 
cated men and women in the church, that 
work is the instruction of her youth in the 
knowledge of the Bible and the truths of 
religion. And if anything in the present 
church scheme is mal-adjusted to this 
end, or if any new adjustments can help 
the work, then there can hardly be too 
much haste or firmness in the readjust- 
ment. We may never realize the ideal 



46 god's ideal. 

church in this imperfect world, but the 
nearer we get to it, and the sooner we get 
there, the more we shall find the old and 
the young blessed in worshipping God 
and studying his word together ; and the 
more fully will the prediction of Isa.j^:ij f 
be fulfilled: "And all thy children shall 
be taught of the Lord ; and great shall be 
the peace of thy children." 



FINIS. 



BOOKS BY MAIL 

A SPECIALTY. 

o 

SEND TO US WHEN YOU 

WANT A BOOK 

Advertised or Mentioned in any Paper, 
and we will send it 

POST JE> J^TID 
On Receipt of Price. 

— o 

Send your Address for Sample Copy of 

BOOK RECORD. 



Correspondence Solicited, 
Liberal Discounts. 

Send for Circulars. 



FOREIGN PUBLICATIONS 

Imported at Most Seasonable 
Kates. 



WILBUR B. KETCHAM, 

PUBLISHER, 

71 Bible House, New York. 



Success of the Gospel and Failure of 

the New Theologies by Bishop John F. 
Hurst, D.D. The New York Christian Advo- 
catessiys: "As a vigorous and masterly com- 
parison of the relative power of the old and new 
theologies, we know of nothing as fresh and as 
strong, and those who read will find faith 
strengthened and devotion stirred." Price 20 
cents. 

A Defence of the Superstitions of Sci- 
ence, by Charles F. Deems, D.D., LL.D. An 

able lecture delivered before the Vanderbilt Uni- 
versity, Nashville, and the American Institute 
of Christian Philosophy. Price 20 cents. 

The Family in the History of Christian- 
ity , by Rev. Samuel W. Dike, Secretary of the 
National Divorce League. A valuable addi- 
tion to divorce literature. Price 20 cents. 

Sam Jones 9 Sermons, as stenographically re- 
ported in Chicago, St. Louis and other cities. 
Illustrated with 50 sketches and portrait of au- 
thor. These are excellent, full and complete 
reports. 600 pages ; cloth, $1.75, paper, 75 cts. 

I^ive Coals, by T. DeWitt Talmage, D.D. This 
work is published in one volume of 678 large 
octavo pages burning with eloquence, divided 
into 76 telling chapters on as many different sub- 
jects of absorbing interest. Price $2.00. 

Christian Thought, edited by Charles F. 
Deems, D.D., LL.D. It contains the lectures 
and papers read before the American Institute 
of Christian Philosophy, together with many 
other articles, the best thoughts of the best 
thinkers in America, together with the ablest 
productions of thinkers abroad. Published bi- 
monthly. $2.00 a year — clergymen, $1.50. 
Sample copy, 25 cents. Contents of bound vol- 
umes 1, 2, and 3 sent on application. 

%* The above works &mt postpaid gu receipt of price, 

WILBUR B. KETCHAM, 71 BiWe House, 1 1 



0" 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Sept. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies | 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 

Cranberry Township, PA 16066 »» 

(724)779-2111 M 



